With statements from two West OC Representatives, OC180NEWS presents two sides of the debt ceiling vote. We get a Republican perspective from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. The Democrat point of view comes from West OC’s only Democrat Representative, Loretta Sanchez.
In addition to reading what two of our Representatives think about the debt ceiling deal, visitors may get different perspectives from The New York Times and FactCheck reports in the related articles section at the end of this article.
Further, it is the policy of OC180NEWS to avoid coloring our articles with our opinions on political issues as much as possible. We attempt to present what our politicians say in their own words with minimum spin, whether we might agree with them, or not. We will, whenever possible, publish both sides of the issues. But beyond that, we will leave it to our readers to assess what our representatives have to say or write.
Below are the two statements, unedited, in full, and in their own words — let the readers beware.
REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ STATEMENT ON DEBT DEAL
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (CA-47) released the following statement regarding her vote tonight in favor of the debt deal.
“It is with the well-being of Californians in mind that I have cast this vote in favor of an increase in the debt ceiling,” said Sanchez. “If we do not increase the debt limit, our economic recovery and our future prosperity will be seriously jeopardized. While this bill is far from perfect, it is the last chance we have to ensure our country has the means to pay for what has been spent, since the deadline for default is tomorrow. As we make a strong commitment to reduce our overall deficit, I will work hard with Democrats and Republicans to protect families and seniors in the execution of these spending cuts. I will continue to advocate for more effective deficit reduction measures, including the elimination of tax cuts for the rich and the end to the protracted wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Rep. Rohrabacher Statement on the Debt Ceiling Vote
Washington, DC- Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) issued the following statement on the bipartisan passage of the debt ceiling bill in the House of Representatives:
“Our country is in financial peril,” said Rohrabacher. “We needed to avert a crisis and that’s what this vote was all about.”
“ Unfortunately, this was not comprehensive fiscal reform that will change the way Congress does business,” continued Rohrabacher. “ In order to achieve something that substantial, Republicans would need the support of the presidency and the Senate, both of which now under the control of Democrats who want to continue down the road of out of control spending, irresponsible budgeting and unsustainable accumulation of debt.
“The level of deficit spending under President Obama over the past two and a half years is dangerous and unacceptable. Running $1.5 trillion deficits per year over the past three years has increased our nation’s debt by nearly $5 trillion. If we continue down this reckless path, the value of the dollar will collapse and our economy fall into a devastating crisis.
“While this particular plan is not a road map to long term fiscal sanity, it is a step in the right direction and will keep our economy from irreparable harm. This is the best Republicans could do with control of only one ½ of 1/3 of the government.
“In the short term, this will end the impending crisis to save our credibility throughout the world which is an accomplishment in itself; in the long term, we need a new President, a new Senate and a diligence by the American people to save our country from financial ruin.”
Congresswoman Sanchez represents California’s 47th Congressional District, which includes the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and parts of Fullerton.
Congressman Rohrabacher represents California’s 46th Congressional District, which includes Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach, Avalon, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Palos Verdes Estates and Rolling Hills Estates as well as portions of Long Beach, Westminster, Santa Ana and San Pedro.
Editor’s note: Readers might wonder why our other West OC Representative, Ed Royce, is not included in this article. The answer is simple – his office never responds to our requests, so eventually, we stopped asking. Apparently, he isn’t very interested in communicating with his constituents in West OC.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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This vote sells out the middle class. There was not one tax dodge or loophole closed. There was not one revenue increase. Discretionary spending today is lower than it was in Reagan’s term as a percentage of GDP. What has killed the economy was two wars that were not funded by increases in revenue, and the Bush Tax Cuts. Ending the two wars and eliminating the Bush tax cuts would have returned the country to the Clinton surplus without a single cut in spending.
The GOP made this all about deficit, and then refused to do anything on the revenue side of the picture (even when the ONLY people that would have been effected were those that made over $300K/yr… how many of you know people making over $300K/yr?). The end result is a bill that will gut education, aid to states, thousands of federal, state and local jobs, programs like the GI Bill, and the VA, clean water, federal regulatory programs that keep our food and drugs safe, the FAA, etc.
When we need a WPA or a CCC program to create jobs and help make the middle class stable and start to regrow our consumer-based economy, we have not poured gasoline into the economic engine, but have slammed on the breaks.
Social Security adds nothing to the debt, but increasing the SS cap by adjusting it to the same formula (the Greenspan formula) that was proposed and initially put in by Reagan (and has not been properly adjusted since), would have extended it past 2100 with no changes in the program.
This is nothing but a bill that will help push up unemployment, help decrease the size and net value of the middle class, and potentially help push us into the double-dip recession, or worse, a depression.
Remember when Bush proposed the tax cuts and said that making these massive cuts in revenue would allow the “job creators” to have the capital to create jobs? Well, from 2001 to the bubble burst it created no jobs, and since then it has created no jobs. What it has done is allowed for the massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the super-wealthy. And almost every member of the GOP (and Blue Dog Democrats like Sanchez) have helped make this transfer possible.
Are you better of now than you were four years ago? Eight years ago? 12 years ago? Well if you make less than $120K then the odds are that you are not. And this bill will make thing much worse, not better.